Legal care work: emotion and care work in lawyering with unaccompanied minors

Abstract

ABSTRACT We know legal representation can improve the likelihood of favorable legal outcomes for immigrants, what some scholars refer to as the ‘representation effect’. But can legal representation affect client's broader integration and resettlement outcomes along the timeline of their legal case? If so, how? Drawing from literature on emotion work, care work, and how attorneys interact with immigrant clients, I propose the concept of legal care work to capture the emotion and care work strategies attorneys undertake to respond to immigrant clients’ broader set of needs. Based on a rich qualitative study of attorneys and Central American unaccompanied minor clients, I show how the legal care work attorneys perform illustrate the need for an expanded conceptualization of the ‘representation effect’ they have on clients, impacting behaviors and outcomes across various dimensions of everyday life. Further, I show how who receives and is denied legal care work—a product of biases and stereotypes, as well as bureaucratic dysfunction—exacerbate disparities along different socio-demographic lines (e.g. race, age, gender). These findings underscore the value of interrogating the role attorneys play in facilitating the transformative effects of the law and advancing social change in complex and hostile legal contexts.